


Connect

by cobaltmoony, DarkCaustic



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Art By CobaltMoony, Consentacles, Cuddling & Snuggling, First Time, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Kidnapping, Other, Venom learning more about humanity, petnames
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 01:24:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16483412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltmoony/pseuds/cobaltmoony, https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkCaustic/pseuds/DarkCaustic
Summary: There are unexpected benefits to having a permanent roommate in your own body, as Eddie Brock is learning.Admittedly, at first was weird, with the fever and the craving for living flesh and the whole thing with the Life Foundation but now that they’ve settled into a semi-normal routine of investigative journalism and eating bad guys, things are going surprisingly well.He’s learning more and more about his new friend every day – what little Venom shares about his own past, his planet, the others of his kind. But the real fun part, he learns, is introducing Venom to new things. Which is fairly easy, considering mostly everything is new to the symbiote.





	Connect

**Author's Note:**

> My friend [Cobaltmoony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltmoony) drew Venom/Eddie art and I had to write a fic for it. 
> 
> Bless her for beta'ing and letting me include her wonderful art!

There are unexpected benefits to having a permanent roommate in your own body, as Eddie Brock is learning.  
  
Admittedly, at first was weird, with the fever and the craving for living flesh and the whole thing with the Life Foundation but now that they’ve settled into a semi-normal routine of investigative journalism and eating bad guys, things are going surprisingly well. 

He’s learning more and more about his new friend every day – what little Venom shares about his own past, his planet, the others of his kind. But the real fun part, he learns, is introducing Venom to new things. Which is fairly easy, considering mostly everything is new to the symbiote. 

The first time it happens, it’s accidental. The coffee place he frequents has some promotion running and he scores himself a free chocolate muffin. Not something he would usually go for but hey, it’s free and freshly baked.

Venom had been quiet most of the morning – another thing he’d learned about the symbiote is that they’re more nocturnal than diurnal and seems to still be resting when Eddie gets up. But as soon as Eddie has a mouthful of chocolate, the symbiote perks right up. Eddie can feel them shifting along the edges of his mind and his stomach does some weird grumble that it only does for Venom.

 ** _EDDIE_** _,_ Venom says into his brain and by now he’s learned not to stumble when that deep voices pours into his consciousness. **_WHAT IS THIS?_   **They ask.

“Uh, a muffin,” Eddie replies. He’s already given up on not talking out loud to Venom – San Fran has its fair share of weirdos so he doesn’t often garner stares when he speaks to his resident houseguest.

Venom is quiet for a moment, considering this before declaring, **_WE LIKE IT._**

XxX

 

Sometimes Venom purrs when he’s particularly content.

Eddie learns this the night he makes them hot cocoa. (Presenting Venom with a blueberry muffin had caused a melancholy feeling to shift through his body and it took him one more try to realize that Venom hadn’t liked the muffin so much as the chocolate.)

So on the first chilly night of summer starting to bleed into fall, he brews up some real hot cocoa on the stove, using milk and whip cream and even sprinkling it with a few shavings of chocolate before crashing on the couch and taking a sip.

 ** _IT’S WARM_** , Venom says, like they hadn’t just watched Eddie boil it.

“Yeah, humans like it like that. Keeps us warm,” Eddie answers.

Venom shifts inside him, curling up like a cat in the a sunbeam and, after a couple more sips, makes a gentle rumbling sound that lulls Eddie like a melody.

 

XxX

 

**_WHERE ARE WE GOING?_ **

He tries not to forget that everything is new to Venom – that even though they’re clearly intelligent and fully grown, earth is new.

That’s exciting, in a way, to Eddie. Like showing someone your favorite movie for the first time, only it’s the entire world.

He takes them out to the park where they can look out over the bridge and the water and it makes him think of the night they stood on top of that skyscraper and Venom commented how beautiful the world is.

It is beautiful.

 ** _IT’S PEACEFUL HERE_** _,_ Venom says.

“I thought you would like it,” Eddie replies.

There is a moment of quiet, just them and the wind and the waves below before Venom says, **_I DON’T THINK ANYONE EVER CARED WHAT WE LIKED BEFORE._ **

Eddie doesn’t know what to say before he answers, “That’s a shame.”

He gets a mix of emotions from Venom then – a tinge of sadness, a spark of hopefulness, and something warm that he isn’t ready to give a name to yet.

He buys a chocolate cake on the way home and enjoys the way Venom purrs and curls around his neck in the privacy of their apartment.

 

XxX

 

After that, it becomes a more deliberate task to find out what Venom likes and he keeps a small list—

Motorcycle rides, fleece blankets, chocolate, romantic comedies, infomercials, beautiful places, Anne, violin music, tater tots, bathes, hot soup, eating bad guys, and keeping Eddie safe.

And it was nice, to not be alone. Venom was curious about the most mundane things – washing dishes and doing laundry and tuning in to the nightly news. 

“Were you not allowed to like things before?” Eddie asks one evening, over empty cups of cocoa and a finished game of checkers that Venom had easily won.

**_OUR KIND IS COLLECTIVE. WHAT THE POWERFUL WANT, WE ALL WANT._ **

“But did you really want it?” Eddie asks, standing and taking the cups to the kitchen.

Something uneasy moves in him. Venom getting introspective. He watches a black tentacle turn the faucet on. They’re stalling.

**_THERE WAS NO ALTERNATIVE._ **

He adds soap and holds the mug still while Venom scrubs at it with a sponge.

“Did you want anything before you found me?” Eddie asks after rinsing the cups and turning them over on the dish rack.

There’s another moment of hesitance before Venom speaks.

 ** _WE WANTED A PARTNER_** _._ They say. _**A COMPATIBLE HOST.**_

“Oh?” Eddie asks, digging for more detail.

**_THE OTHERS—THEY SOUGHT TO TAKE OVER. NOT TO WORK WITH ANOTHER BEING BUT TO TAKE OVER. WE NEVER LIKED THAT._ **

Eddie is quiet. “You didn’t get along with your own kind much, did you?”

Venom doesn’t have a response to that. He feels the symbiote pull back, away from the surface.

“Sorry,” Eddie says but Venom doesn’t reply.

He putters about a bit more – making sure everything is put away and he’s ready for tomorrow before changing into his pajamas and heading to bed. He pulls a blue, fleecy blanket around him, right up against his skin, and he feels Venom shift then. Hovering just outside of his consciousness, right against his skin, it feels like. He rubs his cheek against the softness, back and forth, a soothing rhythm and Venom purrs, just a little, almost too silently to be heard, matching the rhythm and they fall asleep like that.

 

XxX

 

Eddie meets someone on his next project. He’s looking into a shady security company that’s employing veterans who seem to go missing or end up dead (mostly by suicide) and his informant is only a couple years younger than him. He’s missing part of his right hand and a scar takes up a good part of his face.

“Got too friendly with a bomb,” he says with a dashing smile, teeth surprisingly straight and white. He’s clearly scared of whatever is going on but afraid to say that directly. He has no family and it seems his only friends are other vets and work buddies.

Eddie likes him. Likes the way he makes jokes even though he’s worried. Likes the way he drinks his beer. Likes the way he wants to stand up for what’s right.

His name is Drew and Eddie doesn’t want to stop talking to him after he gets all he needs to look into the issue. He likes it when their hands accidently brush, handing a notebook back and forth after Drew draws him a layout of the building’s floor plan. It feels like a jolt, electricity of touch. He’d forgotten the way it could be like that and excitement zips down his spin.

 ** _WHAT WAS THAT?_** Venom asks and Eddie only barely manages to not jump out of his skin. The symbiote had been so quiet and he’d been so enchanted by Drew for the evening that he’d forgotten he wasn’t alone.

He doesn’t answer Venom, because he doesn’t want Drew to think he’s crazy and Venom doesn’t speak again, but hovers close under his skin. Eddie can feel them watching, observing, learning. He has no idea what he’s going to tell them later.

When Eddie closes the tab and he and Drew step out into the evening air to go their separate way there is a moment of awkwardness where Drew looks him up and down and Eddie pauses under the awning. He wishes it was raining, wishes he a reason to draw out the company longer but he doesn’t.

Drew, however, keeps the conversation going, looking at his watch and noting the late hour.

“Since I got back, I just don’t sleep well anymore,” he says.

Eddie looks at him, the way he’s shifting. “I never slept well alone,” Eddie says, feeling like a confession deserves a confession in return.

Drew’s smile is smaller this time, but somehow more genuine. “Yeah?” he asks, rhetorically. “I haven’t slept with anyone in a long time. Probably since before.” He wave his hand a little, drawing attention to the missing fingers, implying the wide breadth of time.

“Me neither,” Eddie replies. “Though, for different reasons.”

“What reasons?” Drew asks, and he’s suddenly stepped in closer. Eddie can feel his breath.

“Broke up with my fiancée and just… didn’t click with anyone else,” he says with a shrug.

Somewhere under the surface, Venom makes a noise Eddie can’t place. He ignores it.

“That sounds rough,” Drew replies.

“Life goes on,” Eddie says. There’s another beat in which Drew doesn’t speak before Eddie says, “Which way are you going? I’ll walk with you.”

 

XxX

 

They don’t have sex. They are both a little broken and they both seem to realize that.

But there’s something human in the need to be held. To feel someone close, to surrender to slumber and not be alone.

Drew likes his fleece blankets. He strips down to his boxers and reveals more scars, but also taut muscles, a tight ass that Eddie would like to explore, but not right now.

He lets Eddie curl up around him, pull him close, skin to skin and it’s nice. The warmth between them under the sheets, their breath and heartbeats syncing.

It’s been so long since anyone’s touched him; he’d forgotten it could be like this. Drew is gentle and pliant in his arms and they sleep close like that. Eddie with his lips pressed to the knob of the other man’s spine. Drew curling his hand over Eddie’s. It’s sweet.

 

XxX

 

They kiss once in the morning, tentative, over coffee and toast. Then Drew has to find his way to work and Eddie has to figure out where he’s going to start on this case.

But when he goes to collect his computer, he finds himself rooted in place. He looks down at where black goo is covering him from the knees to the floor, holding him still.

He feels the strange, tickling sensation of Venom manifesting. The black creeping up out of his skin until he’s eye-to-eye with the alien. Venom’s face is as unreadable as always, dripping teeth and shiny skin.

He’s not afraid, not exactly. Venom’s given him no reason to be afraid of them since they made peace with one another.

 ** _WHAT WAS THAT?_ ** Venom asks again. They actually seem more curious than anything and Eddie’s heart unclenches as curiosity crawls along their bond.

“It wasn’t anything, really,” Eddie says.

**_WHY WAS YOUR HEARTBEAT DOING THAT?_ **

“What was it doing?” Eddie asks, maybe playing a little bit dumb.

**_IT INCREASED WHEN HE TOUCHED YOU._ **

“It’s a human thing,” Eddie says. “Our bodies… do that sometimes.”

Venom hums before asking, **_WHY?_ **

“It means we connected. That we liked each other,” he goes on, not sure how to explain it, if he wants to explain it.

Venom lets his feet go but stays hovering in sight.

**_WE DON’T UNDERSTAND._ **

Eddie rubs his hand through his hair. “Humans need each other,” he says. “We need to be touched. And comforted. And understood.”

**_YOU DID NOT SEEM DISTRESSED BEFORE. ALL YOUR SYSTEMS WERE RUNNING NORMAL. WE CHECK THEM. WE MAKE SURE YOU’RE OKAY._ **

“I know, I know you do,” Eddie says. “It’s not just the body. It’s the brain, the soul. It’s not a physical need, like eating, it’s an emotional one. It keeps our brains healthy, our spirits healthy.”

Venom seems to be thinking about this before they say, _**WE DID NOT KNOW.**_

“I didn’t realize I should’ve explained it,” Eddie says apologetically. He hadn’t actually thought about what his love life was going to look like with Venom. He had just been so damn relieved that Venom was alive (a feeling he also tried not to look at too hard) that he didn’t think long term like that.

 ** _WILL YOU NEED IT AGAIN?_ ** Venom asks.

Eddie shrugs. “I would like it again.”

**_AND IF YOU DON’T GET IT AGAIN? WILL YOU DIE WITHOUT CONNECTION?_ **

Eddie shrugs. “Not… not exactly. Humans are just… We’re social creatures. We need affection to stay healthy but we don’t die without it, exactly. We were just designed to take care of each other, to rely on each other. We’re not solitary. We need to feel needed.”

 ** _STRANGE_** Venom says.

 

XxX

 

Venom does not ask more questions on it. Instead, they spend the day looking for bad guys to eat and giving Eddie mediocre advice on infiltrating the security company.

In the evening, he lets Venom hunt. They are getting good – finding child molesters and pimps and other bad people. Venom’s instinct is good and Eddie is learning to trust them to do the right thing.

They return to the apartment later, when Venom is full and beaming a feeling of contentment through their body.

Eddie sits on the coach with a beer and goes over the intel he gathered that day while Venom watches some old sitcom on TV.

 ** _WHAT ABOUT ANNE?_ ** Venom asks after a solid hour.

Eddie pushes his computer away and rubs his eye. “What about her?”

**_WAS SHE YOUR CONNECTION?_ **

Eddie deflates a little, shoulders slumping as he sighs. “She was.”

Venom picks up on his sadness; Eddie can feel it across their bond.

**_BUT NOT NOW._ **

“She’s still a connection but not a connection like _that._ ”

**_LIKE WHAT?_ **

“A lover,” Eddie says. “She cares about us—me,” he corrects. Pauses. Thinks about it. “Us,” he decides. “But she doesn’t want to be that intimate anymore. I hurt her. She’s with Dan now. He’s a good guy. It’s fine. I’ll find someone else.”

**_YOU ALREADY FOUND DREW._ **

“Yeah, but who knows what will happen,” Eddie says.

**_HE WILL NOT BE YOUR CONNECTION AGAIN?_ **

“I don’t know.”

 

XxX

 

Drew does call him up for coffee after they break the case – the company was using veterans as fodder for trafficking various things -- from people to guns to drugs and killing anyone who wasn’t okay with it.

Eddie turns him down. Suddenly feeling a bit weird about the whole situation. It’s not like he can tell Drew about Venom and he doesn’t like lying.

And he doesn’t fully trust Venom to not make himself known. Not that Venom would deliberately harm his relationship with Drew, but that Venom likes to be involved and doesn’t always understand social situations.

It’s lose lose all around so he wishes Drew the best.

He sits at the table and stares at the wood grain and tries to think about what he’s going to do next.

He’s not sure.

Something warm is pressing against his elbow and he looks down to find a cup of coco with a black tentacle wrapped around it. He stares at it for a moment and then Venom pushes it forward, into his hands and he takes it.

“Thanks, dear,” he says and Venom rumbles in return. He takes a sip and savors the way it warms him.

 ** _WHY DIDN’T YOU CONNECT WITH HIM AGAIN?_ ** Venom asks after a moment. They’re making their presence known, black goo coming out to coat the back of Eddie’s arms and laying thick across his shoulders like a blanket. The weight is comforting, like being held.

“It just didn’t feel right,” Eddie says.

**_WILL YOU LOOK FOR SOMEONE ELSE?_ **

“I don’t know,” Eddie admits. He sets the cup down so he can pat Venom’s skin where it’s covering the back of his other hand, a small smile curling over his lips as he does. “I’m not sure I want to.”

**_BUT YOU NEED IT. YOU SAID HUMANS NEED CONNECTION._ **

“I’m not alone, V,” he says. “You’re here.”

Venom slips tendrils between his fingers, like they’re holding hands. Their skin is warm and so smooth it’s practically slick.

 

XxX

 

He has dinner with Anne that weekend. Nothing fancy, just a catch up in a dinner. She’s in jeans and a gray sweater with her hair pulled up. She looks comfortable, relaxed. Better than he’s seen her in a while.

It makes his heart throb for a moment, remembering how he loved-loves?-loved every facet of her – her serious, business look; her bedhead, morning look; her slinky, black cocktail dress; her baseball cap and gardeners glove. He’d forgotten how easy she was to love and how stupid he was to break her trust.

But, at the same time, Dan is a good guy and he likes him and he trusts him and, most importantly, Anne seems to love him. And he treats her right so Eddie can’t be too sad about the way things are.

Besides… things are… different now.

“How is he?” Anne asks, turning her coffee mug in her hands.

“He’s good,” Eddie says. “Doesn’t try to eat my liver anymore.”

“Well that’s good,” Anne says.

“He likes romantic comedies,” Eddie blurts out, not entirely sure where that comment came from. It’s just—he was the only one on earth who knew an alien parasite enjoyed romantic comedies and how could you not share a fact like that?

Annie gives him a slightly dubious look. “He does?”

“Can’t get enough of them – _You’ve Got Mail, The Holiday, Love Actually, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days_. It’s like he’s trying to watch all of them. And he doesn’t care how bad they are, he likes them.”

“Are you watching romantic comedies with your alien parasite?” Annie asks, amused.

“I don’t… I mean. Sort of.”

“What else do you get up to?”

Eddie shrugs. He thinks about the hot chocolate and the fleece blankets and the late night conversations and—

“Just, life,” he says, and he can’t meet her eyes but he can feel her looking at him with a fondness that’s not hard to place but he’s not ready to name.

 

XxX

 

He buys a bundle of flowers on impulse on the way home.

It was something he used to do for Anne – when he had a shit day, he’d buy her flowers, make her smile, and that would make his day better. He did it when he had good days too. Something to symbolize that the world was all right in all its twists and turns.

 ** _WAS THAT A CONNECTION?_ ** Venom asks when they are alone in the kitchen. Eddie is arranging pedals and leaves in the only vase he owns.

“It was,” he says.

**_SO YOU ARE GETTING BACK TOGETHER WITH ANNE._ **

“It was a different sort of connection.”

Venom grumbles. **_HUMANS ARE COMPLICATED._ **

“We are, but you love it,” Eddie fires back without thinking.

Venom is silent for a moment and he feels like his stomach is going to give out as he realizes he probably shouldn’t have said that.

**_WE LIKE HUMANS. YOU ARE SENTIMENTAL. YOU INDULGE. YOU INTERACT._ **

“That is humanity for you.”

**_WE ARE GLAD WE DECIDED TO STAY. AND NOT TO EAT YOUR PLANET._ **

Eddie chuckles but he hears the unspoken parts of that statement easily.

“I’m glad you didn’t eat me either.”

**_TOLD YOU THAT I’M NOT A PARASITE._ **

“Guess you weren’t lying. Do you still want to watch a movie?”

He falls asleep while Venom watches Will Smith woo Eva Mendes.

He wakes up briefly when Venom carries him to bed. It’s a strange sensation, not being puppeted by the alien, but held, cradled. He feels oddly safe and warm and Venom hushes him and he sinks back into sleep with the symbiote curled all around him and the fleece blankets pulled up tight.

 

XxX

 

He gets a panicked phone call from Drew while walking through the park the next day (Venom is still fascinated by birds and a little annoyed that Eddie won’t let him eat them).

He has to spend a moment coaching Drew through how to breathe before he calms down enough to tell him what’s wrong.

“I think they killed Joan,” he says. She was one of his colleagues and friends.

“I thought the CEO was pushed out and the business got clean?” Eddie says.

“I guess… I guess not.”

 ** _EDDIE,_** Venom says in the back of his mind. He hushes the symbiote.

“I think… Can you meet me?” Drew asks.

“Yeah, of course, where are you at?”

 

XxX

 

 ** _WE DON’T LIKE THIS_** _,_ Venom says as Eddie hurries across the busy city to some coffee house he’s never heard of.

“Drew is in trouble and we are going to help him out.”

**_WE THINK HE’S LYING._ **

“You just don’t like that we cuddled.”

Venom grumbles and then comes back with, **_IF HE IS LYING, WE ARE GOING TO EAT HIM._ **

Eddie decides not to press it.

 

XxX

 

He realizes it’s a trap a moment too late.

 

XxX

 

When he wakes up, he takes stock of himself before his surroundings. His head hurts, but that’s expected. His hands are bound, but also expected. His lip is bloodied and he has a whole cast of new bruises, like he was banged around while he was unconscious.

He blinks, unable to see for a moment, sweat leaking into his eyes. His temples throb and he swallows thickly. He’s thirsty and he aches all over.

It’s dark, but not too dark to see. He’s in some office, poorly lit, scarcely furnished. He sniffs, clears his throat, sits up straighter.

“V,” he says.

The silence that greets him chills him to the bone. There’s no grumbling from the back of his brain, no gnawing hunger, no shivering sensation of the symbiote crawling out of his skin.

“Venom?” he says a little more carefully and tries not to think about the last time he was tied to a chair.

The door to the room opens and a man he’s never seen before enters.

“Hello Mr. Brock,” the man says. He is impeccably well dressed. “I know you must be confused.”

Eddie doesn’t say anything.

“But all will be explained. You see, a lot of information surfaced in the fallout of the destruction of the Life Foundation.”

“I should hope so,” Eddie replies.

“Human experiments, alien life forms, it’s all very interesting.”

“Well, I would’ve been happy to tell you about it over coffee, this is a bit extreme,” Eddie says, curling his fingers and relaxing them to check the circulation.

“I thought it was a shame they all died. The aliens, that is. The humans,” he shrugs like he couldn’t care and continues, “Humanity’s first connection with extra terrestrial life and,” he flicks all his fingers out, miming an explosion. “Wasted. But then, the more I read into it, the more I realized there was one creature unaccounted for. You see, we know there were three creatures - one that died in the lab. One that died on the spaceship. And one, no one knows what happened to.”

“A lot of shit went down, I’m sure lots of things went missing around that time,” Eddie says.

“See, that’s what I thought. But I decided to look into it. After a little digging, I found some… interesting security camera footage. From the lobby of building downtown. A large, black creature single-handedly takes out an entire SWAT team and then… transforms into you. So you can imagine my confusion.”

“What are you suggesting?” Eddie asks, flat voiced.

“I’m suggesting you’ve been walking around with an alien symbiote inside of you for the better part of a year. Of course, I’m not suggesting it. I know it.”

Eddie takes a deep breath, tries to keep his heartbeat under control. _V, where are you?_ He calls down inside of himself without breaking eye contact.

“Turns out, that… thing. wants very much to keep you alive. Which works for us, because we want you alive to.”

“Where are they?” Eddie asks, glaring at his captor.

“It’s safe. I’ve got it in it’s own little jar. You see, with the lawsuits, I was able to get a hold of everything the Life Foundation had done. How they’d contained the creatures, what the creatures need to survive. I was even able to figure out where Carlton Drake went wrong.”

“Where was that?”

“He didn’t test his human subjects enough. He just threw bodies at them and hoped for the best. And, I sympathize with that method. There are so many of us, so many people who live in squalor, who would miss a few? But I’m a scientist, Mr. Brock. I know throwing bodies at a problem isn’t a real solution. Luckily, I have you. You—Eddie – are a gift. You are that creature’s perfect match and we are going to figure out why. Drake was working too hard, trying to solve the equation. You’re the answer to the equation, now all I have to do is work backwards till we understand what makes you so good for it.”

“Where’s Drew?” Eddie asks, bypassing the monologue entirely.

“Drew?”

“The veteran? The one you had call me to set up a meeting place? You know? Late thirties, only has three fingers on his right hand?”

“Oh,” the man says. “He’s long gone. It would’ve looked suspicious if Anne had gone missing. A woman like that. But Drew? No one cares about him. No one at all.”

 

XxX

 

The next time he comes to, he’s in a hospital bed.

He’s strapped to a hospital bed. (This is getting old.)

 _V?_ He tries again, inside, just… just in case. 

But he’s meet with silence.

He hurts. His side has been operated on – he has no idea what they did.

He’s still not sure who they are.

He can hear a heart monitor behind him.

“What did he do different?” he hears his captor ask, but he’s talking to someone else.

Eddie turns his head on the scratchy sheets to see a bank of computers and two men he supposes are scientists talking to his abductor.

Across from him is a glass wall that looks into another room with a glass wall. Inside—Inside he can see a canister with a curling, black mass in it.

His heart pounds hard and he tries to sit up to get a better look, even though he doesn’t need one, he knows—he _knows—_

It’s Venom.

 

XxX

 

Eddie actually has no idea how long he’s there. The lights never turn off and they keep sedating him so it’s hard to track time.

He has the worst view in the house. He can see straight into the room they are keeping Venom in, so close and so far.

So he has a front row seat when they try to put Venom in another host, and Venom—

Venom won’t _go._ It’s like they’d rather die, curling around the floor, this pitiful black puddle of goo. Eddie wants to hold them, invite them back in, tell him he loves them—

They let Venom crawl back into their holding tank moments before it would all be over. 

His abductor screams, knocks something over.

“I have the footage, they always—always!—seek a host!” he yells. “Why doesn’t this one? They’re a match! Blood, bone, liver, lungs, eyes, kidneys. It’s all a match. Do you know how hard that was to find?”

“Maybe—maybe it’s something else?” one of scientist suggests. “Something that we can’t match.” 

“Like what? His personality?”

There is a moment of silence before the scientist speaks. “Who knows? Something’s not right.”

 

XxX

 

Eddie’s sitting up this time when he comes too.

(This is getting old.)

The man is across from him, intense looking, hands clasped.

“Drake’s team couldn’t achieve lasting homeostasis with the creatures,” he says. “We only have one now, and it will not bond with anything we give. Not human. Not animal.”

“Sounds like you’ve got yourself a problem,” Eddie says. His ribs hurt. He thinks they took a scraping of his lung but he’s not sure.

“I do have a problem. I think you are the solution to that problem.”

“You going to let him slither back into me?” Eddie asks. “You sure he wants me?”

“You’re the perfect host, Eddie.”

“He didn’t want that—that woman who was a match that you put in with him. 

“Something else is going on. I think you know what. Drake’s team was able to find a match but something was still wrong. Tell me, Eddie, what am I missing?”

“He likes to eat human heads,” Eddie offers up.

The man storms out of the room.

 

XxX

 

They take more of him.

He’s aware of it, somehow. Slightly awake as they draw blood, cut him open, look at his insides.

He’s too weak to fight it.

Too weak to say anything when they leave him propped there, struggling to keep his eyes open.

The man is back. He has a new stranger with him – a young man who looks wild eyed and homeless.

“Do you think it wants a male host?” the man asks Eddie. “That why it rejected the woman? It’s a misogynist like the rest of humanity?”

Eddie shakes his head, he wants to laugh at the absurdity that Venom cares about petty things like _gender_. “It won’t work,” he says. “He wants _me_. He just wants me.”

The man makes a small _tsk_ sound. “We will see about that,” he says and brings the young man into the glass room where they keep Venom.

Eddie watches the tank open and the symbiote pours out.

He watches the Venom crawl across the floor—sentient goo. His poor darling.

Venom seems to hesitate there on the tiles, shifting uncertainly, assessing the situation.

He should return to the tank, where the atmosphere is better for him.

But he doesn’t.

Eddie watches Venom approach the man and crawl up his leg, sink into his chest.

Eddie thinks, _All good things come to an end._

 

XxX

 

**WE CAN FIX HIM.**

Venom’s voice is _loud_ and all he wants is to sleep—

“Can I look at him?”

That. That would be Dan.

Where the hell did _Dan_ come from?

Eddie manages to open his gummed up eyes. The world spins. It’s like having a terrible hangover. He’s curled up a little, something-someone- is holding him.

He blinks.

Venom. Venom is holding him.

But they are not bonded.

“I think he needs a blood transfusion,” Dan says. “He’s pale and clammy. What happened?”

 **WE CAN FIX HIM.** Venom says again, louder this time.

“Ow,” Eddie says when Venom’s voice rattles around his skull like a freight train.

“Eddie!” Anne says, because, of course Anne is here. “We have been looking for you everywhere.”

Eddie tries to open his eyes again but the light is too much so he closes them and curls closer to the barrel of Venom’s chest. “Sorry to worry you. We were kidnapped.”

“You’ve been missing for _weeks_ ,” Anne says. She sounds—she sounds like she thought he was dead. Part of him takes joy in this fact but most of him just wants to curl up with Venom and sleep and for people to stop making sound and light and demanding answers out of him.

 **I CAN FIX HIM**. Venom repeats like a kid who hasn’t been acknowledged. The single pronoun sounds wrong in Venom’s voice, like he’s struggling to get their message across.

“Buddy,” Dan says carefully. “You don’t have a great track record for fixing Eddie. You were eating his liver last time I saw you.”

 **THAT WAS BEFORE—BEFORE WE CARED FOR EDDIE.** Venom says. **THIS IS NOW. WE CAN FIX HIM. WE WILL FIX HIM. THIS IS OUR FAULT. WE WANT TO FIX HIM.**

“What happened to him?” Anne asks.

 **WE WERE CAPTURED.** Venom says. **SEPARATED. HURT. THEY WANTED TO UNDERSTAND WHY EDDIE IS THE BEST HOST FOR US. THEY CUT HIM OPEN** , **TESTED HIS INSIDES.**

“Oh my god,” Anne says.

**WE SHOULD HAVE PROTECTED HIM BETTER.**

“It’s not your fault that someone wanted to hurt you two,” Anne says.

Eddie can tell how upset Venom is and wants to agree with her, put Venom at ease but he’s so tired and hurt and it’s warm where he’s pressed against the symbiote’s chest and he doesn’t want to move.

 **WE CAN FIX HIM. WE NEED TO FIX HIM.** Venom repeats.

“Okay,” Dan says, sounding like he’s barely clinging to sanity. “Why aren’t you?” he asks, very deliberately keeping his voice level. 

**WE NEED TO REESTABLISH THE BOND TO HELP HIM. WHEN WE LEAVE THIS HOST, HE WILL BE CONFUSED AND FRIGHTENED. WE DID NOT WANT HIM TO BE ALONE. WE NEED YOU TO TEND TO HIM WHILE WE TAKE CARE OF EDDIE.**

“Is he—your current host – is he okay?”

 **HE WILL BE WEAK AND HUNGRY BUT WE DID NO DAMAGE.** Venom says. **WE DID NOT EAT HIS LIVER.**

“That’s. Good. That’s good!” Dan says, edging along hysterics but luckily Venom doesn’t fully understand human vocal tones. “Here, lay him down here,” Dan directs.

Eddie curls closer to Venom, not wanting to be jostled but Venom sets him down on something soft and stays close. Eddie keeps his eyes closed against the light. He can feel every place his kidnappers cut into him, tender and hurt. Venom hushes him slightly, a rumbling sound like a purr, then they cup one of Eddie’s hands in both of theirs and begins to slither out of the stranger.

It feels like sinking into a warm bath – Venom coming home, curling through his body, assessing the damage. Their tendrils seek out the cuts, the bruises, the missing bit of his liver.

 ** _I GOT US._** Venom says in his mind and guides him down into a dark, quiet place for sleep.

 

XxX

 

He wakes because he’s starving.

Actually, they’re both staving – Eddie’s body and Venom.

 _Venom_. He’s thrilled that he is _them_ again. He can feel Venom thrumming under the surface, still anxious, still checking his organs, his bones, his blood. It’s all—better. Somehow. Slight headache like a small hangover. He probably needs hydration but the cuts, the bruises, all gone. His ribs don’t ache anymore. He feels okay. He just needs. Meat. And carbs. Things for Venom to chew on. It must’ve taken the symbiote a lot of energy to patch him back up.

He opens his eyes and finds that he’s still on Anne’s couch. Flat on his back, the afternoon light streaked long across the ceiling from the windows. He’s alone. Well, _they’re_ alone and he smiles to himself a little at that, running his hand over his chest.

“Darling?” he asks gently and there’s Venom, rising out of his chest, inky black, curling warm over his fingers.

 ** _MISSED YOU._** Venom says. They sound lonely, hurt, worried.

“You saved me,” Eddie says.

 ** _WE WILL ALWAYS COME FOR YOU. FOR US._** They say.

“What happened?” Eddie asks.

**_THEY TOOK US, SEPERATED US. PUT US IN A ROOM AND REMOVED THE OXYGEN AND TOLD US IF WE DID NOT LEAVE YOU, THEY WOULD LET YOU DIE. YOU WERE SUFFOCATING, WE HAD NO CHOICE. WE ARE SORRY, EDDIE. WE SHOULD’VE STAYED WITH YOU._ **

Eddie brings his left hand up to stroke at the trembling, unformed mass of Venom on his chest. “Sweetheart,” he says. “No, you were perfect. You kept me alive. You saved us. You didn’t do anything wrong. 

 ** _WE DIDN’T WANT TO BOND WITH THE OTHER HUMAN._** Venom says. And they sound—worried. Like they thought Eddie would reject him after he was with another. **_BUT WE COULD NOT FIND ANOTHER WAY OUT._**

“V, you had to. You need a host. It’s okay. I’m not mad. In fact, I’m very glad. You saved us both. You needed to bond with him. It’s okay.”

**_WE DID NOT HURT HIM._ **

“I know, darling, I know.”

**_EDDIE, WE NEED TO EAT. USED A LOT OF ENERGY TO FIX US._ **

With that, Eddie sits up. The world swims for a minute before he manages to get to his feet and stumbles into the kitchen, startling Anne so much she nearly throws her coffee cup at him.

“Eddie,” she gasps. “I thought—I thought it would take longer.”

Eddie hangs onto the doorway, concentrating very hard on not falling down. “Venom is very good at what he does,” he says. Somewhere in his belly, Venom rumbles a delighted purr. “But we are starving. You wouldn’t, by any chance, have some meat in your fridge? Or tater tots. He loves tater tots.”

She does, in fact, have tater tots.

 

XxX

 

Dan shows back up a little later, while Venom is slurping the marrow out of an uncooked t-bone. There are empty pans for tater tots on the counter around them and Eddie’s not sure how many glasses of hot cocoa they guzzled. He thinks it was an entire box of swiss mix and whatever random chocolate bars Anne found laying around from Halloween they also gulped down.

They’re still hungry but it’s no longer a gnawing thing and his head no longer hurts.

Dan stops and stares at Eddie, Venom’s snake-like head hovering out of his shoulder and Venom doesn’t even stop chewing on the bone to look at Dan.

Dan blinks, shakes his head, accepts the reality that his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend is host for an alien parasite and says, “I took your friend to the police.”

Eddie swallows the last mouthful of tater tots and asks, “My friend?”

“Venom’s other host? Zachery Little.”

“I didn’t know him,” Eddie admits. “He was just—We had the same blood type. And we were a tissue match. He could reach symbiosis with Venom easier than other humans.”

Dan sits down heavily. “He was, apparently, on a donor match list. There’s this organization that, if you have a loved one who needs, say, a kidney, and you aren’t a match for them, you can see if there is another family who needs a kidney and has someone willing to donate a kidney but doesn’t match their loved one but matches with your loved one, so you donate to the stranger and the stranger donates to your loved one. He’d been waiting to find someone to swap with for his brother.”

“He’s okay?” Eddie asks.

Dan nods. “Confused. A little scared, but he’s okay. He’s gonna be okay.”

“And what about the guy who kidnapped us?”

“Brandon Frost,” Dan explains. “At least, that’s what Zack told me. Frost is the executive director of that donor swap organization. Zack was apparently told to meet someone from Frost’s team at that facility to see if he wanted to donate his kidney to a match. Standard procedure, except when he showed up, he was told it was different than usual and he didn’t have a choice but too cooperate.

“Frost told Zack that if they could understand how the symbiote regenerated human tissue, they could make transplants a thing of the past. Of course, he hadn’t really counted on Venom being as loyal to Eddie as he is.”

Eddie nods. “Venom… he doesn’t want anyone else.”

“I figured that out,” Dan says, slightly cryptically.

“But what happened to Drew?” Eddie asks.

“Drew?” Dan asks.

“He’s the one who called me, the night we were kidnapped. He helped me with a different case.”

Dan is silent for a moment. “Eddie, there were a lot of bodies in that place. The police are still cleaning it up. If Frost had another one of your friends I wouldn’t get my hopes up.” Dan looks pained as he says this and all Eddie can do is nod. 

“You should lay low for a while,” Dan suggests. “I know Venom healed you, but you could probably still do with some rest.”

“You’re probably right,” Eddie agrees.

Dan claps him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry about your friend.”

 

XxX

 

Anne lets him camp out in the spare room. It’s part office, part guest room. The bed is only a twin, tucked up against the wall, opposite her computer desk. It’s a nice space, but it’s sterile. Not his. 

He sits on the floor, propped up against the bed and tries to clear his mind.

 ** _EDDIE_**. Venom trills through him.

“Yeah?” he says without opening his eyes.

 ** _ARE YOU SAD?_** Venom asks.

Eddie sighs. “Yeah.”

**_WE ARE SORRY ABOUT DREW._ **

“Me too,” Eddie replies. “He didn’t deserve that.”

Venom curls up somewhere in his chest, small and quivering, like he’s afraid. **_WILL YOU SEEK ANOTHER CONNECTION?_**

“I don’t know,” Eddie says and rubs a hand over his hair, ruffling it up. “I don’t know, V.”

Venom makes a small noise, indescribable, but sympathetic.

“I need,” Eddie begins, stops, starts over. “Can you come here,” he asks, holding his hands out, palms up.

Venom manifests tendrils over his hands, between his fingers. Eddie runs his thumb over the smooth, black flesh, the slick feeling of the symbiote. 

“More,” he says, his voice cracking. “I need more of you, Venom.”

Venom manifests more, a torso shifting up from Eddie’s waist, his face hovering in front of Eddie’s.

Eddie leans forward, warping his arms around Venom, tucking his head just below Venom’s sharp chin.

“I thought I was going to lose you,” Eddie says. “I thought they were going to hurt you and I couldn’t protect you.”

 ** _EDDIE_** , Venom says across their bond, pushing through emotions, things words can’t express – how scared they were, how worried for Eddie they had been, how much they didn’t want to bond with someone else, how lonely they were in that tank they had been kept in.  _ **WE WERE**_ ** _SUPPOSED TO PROTECT YOU._** Venom finally says.

Eddie pulls back a little, cupping Venom’s face gently, looking into those white eyes. “I don’t want Drew or Anne – I’m sad about what happened to him and I’ll always love Anne – but I want you, V. I want you to stay with me. I want you to be my connection.”

Venom leans in, nuzzling the smooth line of his face across Eddie’s jaw. **WE WANT TO STAY WITH YOU, EDDIE. WE DON’T WANT YOU TO CONNECT WITH ANYONE ELSE. JUST US.**

Venom drags him into the bed, eventually. Curls around him tight and close, holds him warm and safe, purring gently and sending feelings of joy and contentment across their bond.

 

XxX

 

They eventually go back to their apartment. It’s untouched, like the time spent gone never even happened. It feels like returning to a ghost town, in a way. Like something happened, but the evidence is gone.

For the sake of something to do, so he doesn’t feel so damn helpless, Eddie rearranges the apartment. Shoves his couch around, moves the rug, changes the towels, pushes his bed up against the far wall.

He stands barefoot in the middle of the space and thinks out loud to his other.

“I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of us,” he says.

Venom is silent for a moment before he answers, **_WE CAN’T PROTECT EVERYONE._**

“I know,” Eddie replies. “I’m not… asking you to. I’m just worried.”

Venom makes a small humming sound somewhere near the back of Eddie’s throat. **_WE SHOULD REST_** , Venom says, already pulling Eddie towards the bedroom. They’re mostly better but, even Eddie will admit, they could use a little more rest.

Eddie lets Venom thump him down into his own bed and it’s nice to be there, in the sheets he picked out after Anne left, in the blankets he bought for Venom, with the sound of the traffic on the road below. So far away from warehouse where they were pulled apart and he was cut open. He feels safe, in spite of everything.

He stretches a hand across the bed and a drop of sorrow sinks through him at the memory of Drew, of Anne, of other bedfellows.

 ** _EDDIE_** , Venom says, feeling that sorrow ring through them. **_WHAT DO YOU NEED?_**

The answer is obvious, it should’ve been obvious ages ago, he knows what he needs. “You,” he says. “I need you.”

Venom curls up out of his skin, out of the palms of his hand, manifesting a body in his bed. They pull Eddie close, wraps their hands over Eddie’s back and lets Eddie press against them.

 **HUMANS NEED CONTACT?** Venom asks.

Eddie nods. He pulls back to look Venom in the eye. “If it’s going to be us, just us,” he says, “if you’re going to be my partner, I need this. Sometimes. Humans need touch. We’re tactile creatures.”

Venom hums. **THIS IS NOT DIFFICULT. WE CAN GIVE YOU THIS.** Venom says. **AND YOU WILL NOT BRING OTHER HUMANS TO OUR BED?**

“I won’t bring anyone else to bed,” Eddie promises. “Just you, darling. Just you.”

Venom leans in, nuzzles his face along Eddie’s, his jaw scraping through Eddie’s stubble.

Eddie gasps a little when Venom continues down the line of his jaw to his throat, teeth grazing his pulse-point, sharp but gentle.

Venom pauses and then does it again, hands tight on Eddie’s waist, holding him so close.

“V,” Eddie murmurs as sensation tingles down his spine. 

 **WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED, EDDIE?** Venom asks, and it sounds almost like he’s teasing—

Eddie pulls at the alien, grabbing onto the other’s shoulders and back, holding tight as he leans forward and kisses the edge of Venom’s mouth, beside his slick teeth. “I need you—“ he says. “Just you, V.”

 **YOU HAVE US, EDDIE. YOU HAVE ALL OF US.** Venom says, their tongue now playing across Eddie’s throat, slick and heavy.

“Good, don’t leave me again,” Eddie says.

 **NEVER. NEVER ON PURPOSE, EDDIE.** Venom promises. **WE WANT TO STAY WITH YOU, FOREVER.**

Black tendrils slink about the bed, feeling their way up Eddie’s legs, pulling his pants open and off.

Eddie leans up on his elbows to pull his shirt over his head, exposing more of his skin to Venom’s touch. Venom’s flesh is soft and warm and so smooth it’s practically slick. Their hands are huge, cupping Eddie’s waist while Eddie leans up to kiss any part of Venom he can teach – their teeth, the corner of their smile, their throat. He pushes thoughts across their bond – the joy he felt when he realized Venom was still alive, the feeling of fleece on their skin, the contentment he has when Venom purrs and sleeps with him.

Venom pushes feelings back – their delight at finding a suitable host, the joy of receiving gifts from Eddie, the relief they felt when they bonded to Eddie again after they were separated.

“Fuck, V,” Eddie gasps, pulling Venom in even closer and grinding his hips against the black mass of Venom’s forming body.

 **WHAT DO YOU NEED?** Venom asks, now curling a clawed hand over the back of Eddie’s head, making him feel small and vulnerable but taken care of all at once.

“Friction,” he says. “I need friction, Venom, please.” He takes Venom’s hand off his hip and pulls it till it settles hot and heavy over his cock. The tip is wet already and he grinds it forward into the palm of Venom’s hand.

The pleasure is sharp and sudden – it’s been _so long_. He hasn’t even masturbated since becoming Venom’s host and, after everything, it’s more than just a physical need. He wants the connection, that feeling of being with another person, the synergy of two bodies together—

He sends the shocked, happy feeling of pleasure along their bond and Venom makes a breathy sound he’s never heard out of the symbiote before. Then Venom is bending down, licking at Eddie’s cock, holding his legs open with both hands while tendrils crawl up his back.

“Fuck, Venom,” Eddie says, surrendering, leaning back into the warm embrace of the alien, letting Venom take control.

Venom curls his tongue tight and wet over Eddie’s cock, rippling along the head, rubbing it tight across the glands before teasing at the hole, slipping down slightly inside of him.

Eddie gasps with how intense the feeling is, rocking in Venom’s grip. He realizes that if Venom wasn’t so strong, he wouldn’t be able to hold Eddie still – every nerve ending in Eddie’s body is on fire. It’s like he hasn’t been _touched_ in a decade, nothing has ever felt so intense. Venom is on him and in him and sending his pleasure through their bond.

“V,” Eddie says again, leaning up to kiss at Venom’s jaw. “Please, take care of me,” he says. “I need you, I need you.”

Venom pulls his tongue back, a tendril sneaking out of Venom’s mass to curl around Eddie’s cock instead Venom laps happily at his face with his tongue. **WE'RE HERE, EDDIE, I’M HERE.** Venom says. **WE WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU.**  

Just like that, Venom is behind him, huge and sturdy, their tongue still plastered to the side of Eddie’s face, his hands holding his legs open and the tendril working his cock. Eddie shoves another idea across their bond – of a slick tentacle working him open from below, pushing into his ass and rubbing across his prostate.

Venom makes a happy grumble at that, quick on the uptake, and then something warm and solid and wet is snaking up Eddie’s thighs and heading straight for his hole. It curls around the tight entrance for a moment, making Eddie keen, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to push down onto it.

 **PATIENCE** , Venom says. **WE WILL NOT HURT YOU.**

Eddie writhes in Venom’s embrace. “I trust you,” he says.

More tendrils appear, now pulling Eddie’s arms behind him slightly, holding him still as the tentacle pushes up into him. Eddie groans loud and long, throwing his head back against the juncture of Venom’s shoulder and neck.

“Fuck, V, that’s good, it’s so good,” he says, trying to shove his hips down, but Venom holds him fast and tight.

More tendrils snake up along his chest, warm and careful. One curls around a nipple, teasing it to hardness. Another slinks across his waist to bring him closer to the solid mass of Venom’s chest. Eddie feels small and taken care of in a way no lover has ever made him feel before.

Venom is sending warmth through their bond, fondness, excitement, love. It’s overwhelming. Eddie pushes back feelings as good as he gets – adoration, contentment, happiness. He wants Venom to know how glad he is that Venom survived, that Venom saved him, that Venom wants him.

Venom hums in his ear and strokes Eddie faster. Inside, his tendril finds Eddie’s prostate with no hesitance and strokes it just right.

“Oh my god,” Eddie gasps when Venom tugs his thighs just a little bit wider so he can lift and drop Eddie on the tentacle fucking him. “Don’t stop,” he says.

 **WE WOULD NEVER** , Venom replies, picking up the pace.

“Yes, like that, faster,” Eddie begs and Venom complies, nailing his prostate every time he pushes Eddie back against him.

 **COME FOR US, EDDIE** , Venom says, his tongue lapping at the side of Eddie’s face and neck.

 

 

“I’m trying to,” Eddie breathes, closing his eyes and letting himself get lost into the sensations – Venom in his mind, in his body, around him, dominating him, holding him, caring for him. Venom wanting him and loving him like no one else ever has before.

Venom rubs at the glands on his cock again and Eddie whines, twitching and finally, finally, coming.

“Fuck, Venom, Venom!” Eddie moans, riding out the wave of pleasure. He can feel Venom’s delight at him screaming their name and the secondary wave of Venom enjoying his orgasm is almost as intense as the orgasm itself.

Venom is purring all around him, tendrils slipping out of his body and clawed hands laying him gently in the sheets.

 **MY EDDIE,** Venom says fondly and nuzzles him.

Eddie manages to bring his tired hands up to curl around Venom’s face and hold him there for a moment, forehead to forehead, letting his breath and heart rate return to normal.

After he’s calmed down, Venom licks him clean and it’s a little… unnerving, watching Venom happily lick up the puddle of come on his abs but then Venom is shoving him under the sheets, tugging the blankets up over them.

Eddie reaches for them, pulling Venom’s face back toward him. Venom has already abandoned the human-like shape for the serpent like one (Eddie supposes that one takes less work to hold).

“Will you stay?” he asks, carefully.

Some confusion pulses across their bond as Venom answers, **OF COURSE WE WILL STAY.**

Eddie shakes his head, kisses Venom gently and clarifies, “Stay like this, tonight, I need you.” He warps an arm around Venom’s neck and pulls the symbiote closer. 

There’s a moment of silence before Venom says, **YES, WE WILL STAY LIKE THIS, EDDIE.**

Tendrils appear up his back, warm and soft, tucking themselves over his flesh and hold him in his other’s embrace.

And like that, they sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Cobaltmoony is on [ tumblr](https://cobaltmoonysart.tumblr.com/) and you can reblog her amazing artwork [here](https://cobaltmoonysart.tumblr.com/post/178930346076/i-saw-venom2018-and-i-just-gotta-get-it-outta-my)
> 
> I am on [tumblr](http://thedarkcaustic.tumblr.com/) also.


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